life is what you make it – glasses not included

Rain, rain go away: why you need an emergency fund

Hello Spring! Just kidding! Good ole Kentucky weather! We had a solid 3 days of epic temperatures this week: Sunshine, birds chirping and windows open! It was more than a breath of fresh air! It was invigorating! The tulips out front are even peeping out! ❤

And then came the rain… and it’ll be rain for days along with much cooler temps. Hunter Boots on, rain jackets at the ready and umbrellas in hand. There’s flood warnings. Restaurants and businesses down by the river are taking precautions. Y’all they’re literally putting their outdoor furniture on their roofs to keep it from being ruined! Why? This isn’t their first rodeo! They knew it was coming. They know it’s going to rain and what happens when it rains, so they took action. They’re minimizing the impact. They’re lowering the risk.

Makes sense, doesn’t it? We should all be prepared for the rainy days. Because as Dave Ramsey says, IT’S GOING TO RAIN!

Did you know, according to a recent CNBC story, only 39% of Americans have enough savings to cover a $1,000 emergency? 19% of the people polled said if they had an emergency come up, they’d use a credit card to cover it.

If you’re not sure where to start on your path to financial freedom, it’s here. First things first, get yourself an emergency fund of $1,000. Work as fast and as hard as you can to get this socked away in a savings account and DON’T TOUCH IT unless it is a TRUE emergency. That sale at Nordstrom is NOT an emergency and neither are those cute heels that just went on clearance!

I had never had a balance in my bank account of any significant amount, meaning above, oh we will say $20, OK maybe $50. We lived paycheck-to-paycheck. Just two kids pretending to be adults, trying to do it right and not knowing how.

When we got that first thousand in the bank, it was like a new found glory. It was like I became a member of a secret club. The secret? I could handle an emergency. I could handle a flat tire. I could handle that time we went to renew the tags on our ONE car and ended up having to pay for TWO because even though we sold our second car, we owned it the first of that year. (Who knew that was how it worked?! Not us!)

I remember calling the husband, letting him know the bill was double and we had to pay both to renew the tags on the one car we owned. It was a simple conversation, take the money out of the emergency fund and move on.

I called him back when I got to the car and life had moved on. There was no crisis of “What are we going to do now?!” “That was our grocery and gas money!” It was simply handled. We paused the debt snowball and put the money back into our emergency fund. Once it was back to $1k, we went back to the next debt. Easy peasy.

My life had never been that way y’all. EVER. I had never felt so much like a real adult than that day. A bonafide, legit, responsible adult. And it felt good.

Think of the last emergency that blew your day, week or month up.Did your car battery die? Your family pet need an unexpected trip to the vet? Did you go into debt to cover it?Did you get in an argument with your spouse after? Were you so stressed out about where the money was going to come from you lost sleep that night?

Now think about how it would have went down if you had an extra grand set aside for just those types of events. Sleep more? Feels better doesn’t it? Surreal, maybe? You can have that.

Listen, I get it. Credit cards are safety. We say we will keep them for emergencies only and the thought of not having one in the freezer to thaw out “just in case” terrifies us. But, if you build your own safety net with an emergency fund, who needs a credit card? You don’t need it to lean on, you’re holding yourself up!

If you want to win with money you need to make money moves! Take the first step, sell whatever is collecting dust in your basement, cut down on your shopping sprees and get yourself an emergency fund.

It’s going to rain, but the question is, is it going to flood after or will you have a bright, bright, bright sunshiny day? I don’t know about you guys, but bring on the sun!

Such great information! I remember the feelings of panic when my husband and I didn’t have our finances truly in order (think paycheck to paycheck). It was true panic! Having that emergency savings is such a good feeling. It eases that panic, which I think lets us make better decisions about the situations we are experiencing.